Screenshot: @ronniecnyc on Instagram
The streets of New York City are uncharacteristically empty right now as the Big Apple is ravaged with tens of thousands of cases of covid-19. The city that never sleeps has effectively been shut down as people are ordered to stay indoors in order to keep the spread to a minimum. But when you’re an extremely wealthy collector of super cars, none of that applies to you, right? The streets are wide open, so it’s time to rip around Manhattan in your near-million-dollar Gemballa Mirage GT. Great idea!
As it turns out, speeding through the streets of New York City is never a great idea, even in ideal conditions. And Porsche’s Carrera GT was built for race tracks, not the pockmarked city streets. Visibility is poor, cross traffic exists, and you never know when you’re going to come up on a work van just minding its own business. The owner of this car, Ben Chen, a co-founder of the GoldRush Rally for exotic cars, slammed headlong into a stopped van. That would have been bad enough on its own, but the blue Gemballa then reversed itself out of the back of the van, then tore off in a flurry of shattered carbon fiber and coolant.
Here you can see the aftermath of the collision. This carbon-tubbed beauty is unlikely to be properly repaired. I’m not sure this Carrera GT will ever see the light of day again. It may be best to strip it for parts at this point. All four corners of the car are seriously messed up, and at the very least the rear subframe looks like it’ll need to be replaced. And that’s if running the engine without coolant didn’t completely fry the extremely expensive V10 engine. Even if it can be repaired, I wouldn’t want to be stuck with the bill.
Here is the point at which Chen attempts to make a break for it. He doesn’t make it very far from the scene of the accident before police catch up with him. Even if he did get away and managed to get the car back home or to a shop or whatever, did he think he’d get away with it? He is driving an exceedingly rare tuned supercar with a custom vanity license plate. Chen has owned this Carrera GT since 2014, reports Road & Track. He bought the GT Silver Metallic Porsche 980 then had it sent off to Gemballa for the modifications and a blue paint job.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-r7RHbnzv8/
According to Fox 5 NY, the incident happened on 11th avenue on the west side of Manhattan, before he was eventually stopped on 44th street. In some of these videos on the scene, it looks almost like Chen is going to attempt to make a break for it.
I know that quarantine has us all going stir-crazy, but there is never a good time to drive recklessly. Keep it sane and safe on public roads. Better yet, just stay the heck home!
